Nightmare on Aragon Tower

[s_dow]

Dear Sir,

I moved into Aragon Tower on the 7th July 2007. This is a Berkeley Homes Development in South East London. The development was awarded by the Evening Standard New Homes Awards for “Best New Apartment�.
When I moved into the apartment I was given a substantial snagging list.
On the 14th August 2006 I noticed that I had a serious water leak in my bedroom and reported it to Berkeley Homes. 6 weeks later I received 2 buckets and was told that I have another bedroom or that I could sleep on the sofa.
I was given no indication of when they would carry out the work and obviously having waited 6 weeks already and given 2 buckets realised that I could only deal with this company via the courts.
In fact the whole roof needed to be taken up apart from the plant and there was found to be at least 20 holes in the roof. After that every terrace had to be taken up and there were leaks on most if not every pitch pocket amongst other leaks. Workmen also caused further damage in the premises.
Almost every item on the snagging list took months and months of work to get done; an example is the mastic that took about 8 visits to correct and at least twice was done in both the wrong colour and to a very poor standard. Or another example is the tiles in the bathroom which were not installed correctly. (No plywood under part of the tiles). This required 3 months and approximately 10 visits and 5 no shows (no shows mean setting up an appointment to come and do the work then not turning up or calling to say otherwise.). I have a list as long as my arm of the history of the negligence they have shown over the past 7 months since I moved in.

There is a catalogue of errors and I have enclosed photos of some of the issues above. The matter is currently progressing in the courts and I have been offered £1000 as an out of court settlement which is appalling. I would like to know your thoughts as I believe the wider public would welcome the opportunity to see the problems that Berkeley Homes have caused me and maybe the making of an award should have some input by those that live there as there are often a lot of hidden agendas that the developer may try to hide.

I would be willing to discuss in more detail, please contact me at the email addres.

Yours Faithfully,


S

[Tony]

Berkeley Homes tend to have a good reputation, but all builders seem to have 'good' and 'bad' sites. They will want to protect their reputation and will not want to go to court and will not want to get any bad publicity.

The £1000 offer is obviously low and I know a few people that have had their mortgages paid off!

Tony

[EJoergensen]

Dear Sir,

I am responding to Mr. S. comments posted on your website 10 Feb 2007.

I am an owner occupier at Aragon Tower and I was most surprised to read about the problems which Mr. S has faced during the last 6 months in the building when dealing with Berkeley Homes.

I am surprised at his commments as I have not encountered any problems whatsoever with Berkeley Homes and would go so far as to say that as my fourth property purchase and second off the plan purchase this has been the best property in terms of process and standard of the specs by far. I have had a couple of snagging issues with the property (the fan didn't work properly in the kitchen and there was a problem with the side of the bath panel), but on both occasions within 2-3 days (!) of notifying Berkeley Homes, they had sent over the appropriate workman to sort the problem and where it was not possible to sort immediately they followed up without me having to chase.

I would note that it appears based in one of the penthouses on the top of the building which were brand new additions to the tower, rather than my flat which was a total and luxurious refurbishment of the previous building so his specifications are probably different.

I do emphasise with his issues and can clearly see that he has had a particularly stressful time, but I can only say that in my dealings with Berkeley Homes they have been nothing but excellent and I am enjoying living in my luxury duplex apartment.

Kind regards,
Ms. E. Joergensen

[Warwick]

it will be interesting to know more about this case in Court 11

See link

http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/cms/list_tcc.htm